Simon Blackburn

From The Pope and the atheist by John Nery:

The Cambridge philosopher Simon Blackburn, addressing a conference in Lugano, Switzerland last weekend on “Truth in Science, Humanities and Religion,” phrased the problem in familiar terms. “Suppose I voice an honest and heartfelt opinion about anything, from mathematics to aesthetics. The conversation-stopping remark ‘That’s just your opinion’ is not only beside the point, but more importantly dehumanizing. It signals that your words do not deserve to be taken seriously, but only taken as symptoms, like signs of a disease.”